A lot of AI advice skips the most important part: the order you do things in. In this episode of Make Time, Sam Hurley makes the case that when AI is brought in to fix a business rather than enhance it, it simply amplifies what was already wrong, which is part of why we're starting to see a sea of loud, mediocre businesses all producing the same confident-looking output. The fix isn't a better tool. It's a better sequence.The anchor idea comes from Erik Brynjolfsson's work at Stanford's Digital Economy Lab: AI is a multiplier of the capability already present in a business, not a substitute for it. If your data is clean, your processes are documented and your team knows how decisions get made, AI makes all of that faster and sharper. If your data is fragmented and your processes live in someone's head, AI makes that faster too. As Sam puts it, bring AI into a messy business and you've deployed intelligence on top of chaos: the problems don't disappear, they accelerate, and they get harder to spot because they're now wrapped in the authority of an AI-generated output.So what's the right sequence? Drawing on Deloitte's 2026 State of AI in the Enterprise survey, Sam notes that high-performing organisations don't use fundamentally different tools. They differ on three things: clarity of AI strategy, redesigning how they operate to support AI, and shared leadership engagement rather than one person owning it. Translated for a small business, that becomes three stages. Sam shares two alumni examples, including an Industry Growth Program participant who built the systems first and AI third, and reached 40% year-on-year growth before the end of the program. If you've already jumped to stage three, don't see it as a failure. It's a learning, and the right move now is to go back and build the foundations so the technology can finally pay off.Key takeawaysAI is a multiplier of existing capability, not a substitute (Brynjolfsson). It amplifies what's already there, good or bad.Bring AI in to "fix" a business and you deploy intelligence on top of chaos, making the chaos faster and more authoritative.The order matters: foundations first, then workflow, then AI augmentation.Stage 1 (foundations): clean data, documented processes, explicit decision-making. A targeted check on two or three areas, not perfection.Stage 2 (workflow): decide where AI creates the most leverage, and let the tool fit your business. Two or three well-chosen applications beat ten tools.Stage 3 (augmentation): with clean data, a clear workflow and the right tool, results compound. High performers differ on strategy, operating redesign and shared leadership, not on the tools (Deloitte 2026).If you've already jumped to stage three, that's a learning, not a failure. Go back and build the foundations.Subscribe to the Make Time newsletter for one practical capability idea each week: https://www.25eight.co/newsletter-sign-upTo find your own stage in the sequence, the Small Business Capability Gap diagnostic takes about eight minutes and surfaces the gaps most likely limiting how much value you can capture from AI right now. Complimentary, log in for your results anytime, no email flood: https://capability-gap.25eight.coIf you want help building your foundations and using AI intentionally, the Next Level Growth Program and Industry Growth Program are built for that. If your foundations are already solid and you're ready to build deliberate AI capability, Lead with AI (beginner, intermediate and advanced tracks) is designed for exactly that stage.Chapters00:00 Understanding AI's role in business06:23 The importance of sequence in AI implementation11:46 Building foundations for AI success14:28 AI augmentation: enhancing human capabilities18:03 Real-world success stories with AI19:55 Where to start